The girls, as usual, are on a roll
Floyd County High School’s Lady Buffs varsity basketball team pulled out an impressive victory against scrappy Radford Friday night to bring their season record to 17-1 overall and 8-0 in district play.
The 67-60 win made up for the 68-41 massacre that Radford handed to the boys’ team on Thursday night.
Looks like another championship season for the Lady Buffs. Better make reservations for Richmond. (Photo from 2008 championship run in Richmond)
(Updated on Feb. 2 to replace photo because original shot was from a JV game)
Faster response, better communication at FCHS
Contamination in water lines at Floyd County High School Thursday prompted anxious phone calls from students to parents.
FCHS principal Barry Hollandsworth took quick action to close off the two contaminated lines, posted a letter to parents on the school’s web site and sent copies home with students.
Hollandsworth said a pressure valve malfunctioned in the school’s boiler system and contaminated water in the cafeteria kitchen and a restroom. Students were warned to not wash their hands in ther rest rooms or drink water from the school’s water fountains. The school furnished hand sanitizers and bottled water to students.
I shot a basketball game at FCHS Thursday night and the fountains were working.
Quick action by Hollandsworth and school officials kept parents informed and help allay their fears. The school avoided a backlash from parents like the one that occured in December 2007 when a water problem at Willis Elementary School was downplayed and buried in the back pages of a newsletter.
UPDATE (Feb. 2, 1:55 p.m.): School officials say they are still working on the problem. The letter from Hollandworth did not say the problem has been corrected although another school official told me last Thursday night that "the water is fine."
The oppression of forced religious belief
Bonnie Erbe, an excellant columnist whose work appears often on one of my news web sites, filed an interesting piece this week on a religious harassment case involving Blacksburg Middle School.
Judith Scott probably never set out to be a First Amendment heroine. But she is as far as I’m concerned. Scott has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia for what she claims was a retaliatory firing. Her proselytizing boss at the Blacksburg, Va. Middle School, whose acts are detailed in her court filing, kept trying to force her to participate in unlawful prayer meetings and religious events at work.
I learned about Scott in the Collegiate Times, the campus newspaper of Virginia Tech. Driving to Blacksburg from Washington, D.C., one passes signs for Christendom College and other reminders that one is traversing Bible country. Small towns dot the angled landscape of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The Times reports that Scott was asked by her supervisor whether an unnamed person could "pray for her" and she complied out of a sense of pressure. She later declined to attend a religious conference with faculty members and was deluged by them with Christian-themed DVDs and audiotapes upon their return.
"The suit alleges that the supervisor would dim the library’s lights, hold prayer meetings, ‘anoint’ the premises and ‘lay hands’ on those present. The supervisor would also leave ‘praise’ sticky notes and daily Bible verses around for Scott to see."
The Times goes on to describe the pressure put on Scott to practice Christianity in what became a hostile work environment. It never explains whether Scott is a non-believer or a believer of a different faith. But she clearly put up with a huge amount of religious harassment before she filed her lawsuit.
She took her case first to the assistant school board superintendent and was offered a transfer to another facility. But she stood her ground and said she wanted to continue working as a media aid assistant right where she was, as she had done nothing wrong. That takes guts! When her contract ended it was not renewed. She claimed she was in essence, fired, in retaliation for her complaints.
I’m not surprised Scott came under attack by religious zealots. Whenever I dare write something that suggests a minister or religious fanatic has overstepped their bounds my email box fills with messages of hate in the name of God and I often find religious material slid under the door of my studio.
It does surprise me, however, that this happened in Blacksburg, home of a giant state university and a community supposedly more enlightened when it comes to the First Amendment and religious freedom.
Our founding fathers had the right idea when it came to separation of church and state. Everyone has a right to believe or not believe in a supreme being. Everyone has a right to practice or not practice religion. No one has a right to force their religious beliefs on others.
We often find religious material on our doorstep, left by those who see themselves as traveling salesmen for God. A black hearse often cruises the streets of Floyd, covered with signs warning us that doomsday is coming and urging us to get right with the Lord. Local ministers use the power of their pulpit to stop the Commonwealth from opening an ABC store in Floyd or to attempt to stop a microbrewery from opening.
At least one of our supervisors demands to know where candidates from office stand on requiring prayer in schools. He thinks it should be mandated.
Erbe writes:
President Bush’s eight-year tenure, in which religion formed and mis-formed federal laws, trumped science in federal policy and even may have been partly responsible for launching an unsuccessful war, allowed situations such as Scott’s to flourish throughout the land. This is hardly the only way in which the Bush presidency took us back 50 years. It is, however, a dominant theme of his tenure as is the takeover of the Republican Party by the religious right.
Judith Scott is hardly alone. One need only peruse the Web sites of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (au.org) or the Freedom From Religion Foundation (ffrf.org) to find documentation of countless instances of religious discrimination perpetrated, even encouraged, during the Bush years. Americans United has a nine-point agenda it is asking Obama to follow. The group is asking him to ban faith-based job bias (as faced by Scott), restrict faith-based funding and end school vouchers (which are nothing but a federal bonanza for Christian and religious schools.)
Religion is a personal matter. So is an individual’s relationship with God or whatever supreme being he or she may or may not accept.
A few years ago, a young man with religious sayings pinned to his clothing became a familiar sight in downtown Floyd. He approached me on day and, in a loud voice, asked: "Have you found God?"
I looked at him in shock: "Lord no! Is he missing?"
No, God isn’t missing. He’s just waiting for us at home.
Floyd Countians hit by area job cuts
A few days ago, a Floyd Countian told me he would lose his job if Volvo cuts any more employees.
"I’m near the bottom on the seniority list," he said. "You know the rule: Last hired, first fired."
On Tuesday, Volvo announced it will cut 650 jobs at its Dublin truck plant. Other Floyd Countians will lose their jobs as well. Corning announced it will trim 3,500 jobs at its plants, including their operations in Christiansburg. A number of Floyd Countians work their as well.
Since the beginning of the year, I’ve talked to more than a dozen county residents who either lost their jobs since Dec. 1 or expect to lose them in the coming weeks. On Monday, 70,000 employees lost their jobs nationwide. Few expect to find new jobs in the immediate future. Nobody’s hiring.
Goodyear will close its Radford plant Friday. Most Circuit City employees lost their jobs when the company hired a liquidator to sell off remaining stock and lock the doors. One was a Floyd County High School student who worked at the Roanoke store on evenings and weekends to make money for college. More than 100 retail businesses — large and small — have closed or announced they will close in the Roanoke and New River Valley since Christmas.
The layoffs will ripple through the county and place strain on already-overstressed resources. Carl Ayers at the Floyd County Department of Social Services expects an increase in applications for assistance and food stamps. Businesses face declining sales because people don’t have money for even basic staples.
I see it in clients who used to pay on time but now take longer to settle up their accounts. A city government that owes me money from a job completed back in October cites "cash flow problems" as an excuse for not paying.
Floyd County has a strong barter economy where services are exchanged for services or food or necessities. That could be a salvation for some unemployed workers who can put their skills as a carpenter, electrician or mechanic to work for those willing to barter.
New President Barack Obama warns we should expect things to get worse before they get better. The news this week confirms that warning.
Martin Luther King Day and Floyd County schools
Roanoke Times editorial writer Christian Trejbal, a lightning rod who stirs up even more controversy than this web site, recently found a pattern involving the Superintendent of Floyd County’s school system and the superintendent’s son, who runs the school system in Giles County.
Most schools closed on King’s holiday, as they do every year, but not schools in Floyd and Giles counties.
MLK Day, the third Monday of January, has been a national holiday since Ronald Reagan signed it into law in 1983. The states, however, had to adopt it individually, and some did so more quickly than others. Today all of them recognize it in one form or another.
In Virginia, lawmakers first tied it to Lee-Jackson Day. That odd juxtaposition of Confederate generals and civil rights crusader ended in 2000, when the General Assembly moved Lee-Jackson Day to the Friday before MLK Day.
But just as Congress refused to impose MLK Day on the states, the commonwealth did not impose it on local schools. Most state offices shut down, but school boards and superintendents decide whether classes meet.
The state Department of Education does not track which schools take the day off, but in the New River Valley, it’s everyone except the two school systems headed by the Arbogasts. That’s father Terry Arbogast and son Terry Arbogast II, the superintendents of Floyd and Giles schools respectively, where only 2 percent of the students in each county are black.
The elder Arbogast did not return calls for nearly three weeks seeking comment and only obliquely answered questions posed by e-mail. At least the younger one was willing to talk about the Giles policy.
Giles schools set the holiday aside as a makeup day. If there are no weather cancellations before it, students and teachers get the day off. This year, there was a snow day on Nov. 18, so class was in session on Monday. Most years there is a snow day.
In the father’s schools, they do not even have the pretense. School is in session on MLK Day most years. This year was an exception because it happened to fall at the end of a term. Kids got the day off, but teachers and staff worked.
Some comments to Christian’s column accused him of calling the Arbogasts racists — a charge he denies — and of hyprocrisy because the Times publishes on MLK day (the day is, in fact, a paid holiday for employees of the Times).
Few places around here recognize MLK day as a holiday, which is not surprising. Those who recognize both MLK day and Lee-Jackson Day get a four-day weekend, which isn’t bad if you are willing to overlook the irony of beginning the weekend celebrating two Confederate generals and ending it in remembrance of a civil rights leader.
I don’t believe Terry Arbogast is racist. However, I do see a pattern in his reluctance to discuss the question with Trejbal. He doesn’t trust the media and was openly critical of The Roanoke Times at the last meeting of the board of supervisors for the paper’s reporting of the state budget crisis and its effect on schools. He also told others that I "misrepresented" his remarks during a confrontation with supervisors over a budget issue last year although he never addressed those concerns to me directly nor did he ever ask for a correction to the story I wrote for The Floyd Press.
Arbogast is a tireless promoter of Floyd County schools. His appearances at the county board of supervisors meetings are entertaining presentations that are part carnival barker and part evangelical preacher but his reports are sometimes long on hyperbole and short on detail.
The final decision on whether or not Floyd County schools stay open or closed on MLK day is made by Floyd’s school board based on the recommendation of the school superintendent. In the past, the board has been less-than-candid with county residents and parents. In 2007, the board downplayed lead contamination found in two water fountains at Willis Elementary School.
Had Arbogast been open and candid with an editorial writer from the Times, the tone of the story might have been different. It’s easy to find hints of racism, especially when a public official avoids discussing the matter with the media. A school superintendent, of all people, should remember just how easy perception can become reality in today’s society.
Dreams, realities and new horizons
A classmate from Floyd County High School in the 60s dropped by the studio last week to visit and talk about the old days. During our conversation, she asked:
You and I both had big dreams and big ambitions back then. We both wanted to travel and see the world. We wanted to make a difference Did your dreams come true?
We both had a lot of dreams back then. After school, we would drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway in my ’57 Ford and find a secluded spot to explore our hormonal urges. Afterward, we would discuss our dreams.
We talked of seeing the world, of witnessing history and "making a difference." I wanted to be a journalist, reporting stories with camera and words. She talked of becoming a stewardess, a far more glamorous job in those days and one that would open the door for travel to far away places.
I wanted out of Floyd County so bad that I went to summer school and took a full course load without study hall to graduate a year early. In 1965, I packed everything I owned into that ’57 Ford and left. She stayed, married her boyfriend and started a family. Last week, 44 years later, we talked again about those dreams.
I answered her question:
Yes, most of my dreams have come true. I’ve been lucky enough to spend most of my life doing exactly what I wanted to do. I’ve been to every state in this country and every continent on Earth. I’ve reported on history as a journalist and have been part of it as a staff member for Congress. I’ve been blessed with a good life and a loving wife. What about you?
She thought for a moment. I could tell she was searching for words.
Yes, and no. I’ve got a wonderful husband, great kids and a good life. We’ve built a good home here. I can’t complain. I shouldn’t complain. I won’t complain. I have no right to complain. We talked about traveling after the kids were grown and when we retired but our retirement accounts are trash now because of the economy. I guess we will finish out our lives here. I regret not seeing the world. That is an unfulfilled dream.
She left and I thought about dreams and realities. Many of my classmates at Floyd County High School married their high school sweethearts. Most remain married to them. Some never dated another person or left the county to experience life in another city, another state or even another country. Two friends from high school decided in elementary school that they were destined to marry. Neither ever dated another person. They married right after high school and remain married today. They have visited North Carolina and West Virginia but never traveled any further from Virginia and say they have no desire to ever see any more of the country or the world.
I cannot, and will not, fault those who chose to stay and make their homes and lives here. Many I’ve talked to are happy. Their lives center around children, home and church. They live full lives.
Most of us had dreams as kids. We talk at length of the things we want to do, the places we want to see and the directions we want our lives to take. Some of us are lucky enough to do what we wanted and live out those dreams. Others find happiness in something that never figured into their plans. Our lives take uncharted directions along roads that lead to new challenges, new dreams and new challenges never considered.
Yet, to some, I see longing, a sadness for dreams unfulfilled, goals unattained and expectations unmet. Life took a wrong turn somewhere and they never found themselves back on their planned route.
During his campaign for the Presidency in 1968, a campaign cut short by assassination, Robert F. Kennedy borrowed this thought from British playwright George Bernard Shaw:
Some men see things as they are and ask "why?" I dream dreams that never were and ask "why not?"
Let’s hope none of us ever stop dreaming. Let’s hope we never stop chasing those dreams either.
(WRITER’S NOTE: The subject of this article reviewed it before publication. She asked for some changes which I made. I would not have been written or published without her permission.)
The politics of anger and hate
Went to a party Tuesday night, thrown by those who wanted to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama. Many were died-in-the-wool Democrats.
Felt a little out of place. I’m a political agnostic when it comes to parties, labels and philosophies. I’m a free-market libertarian who owns guns, supports the right of a woman to choose, endorses the death penalty and opposes the legalization of marijuana. I voted for Richard Nixon in 1972, Gerald Ford in 1976, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984, George H.W. Bush in 1988, Bill Clinton in 1992, Bob Dole in 1996, George W. Bush in 2000, John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008.
At the party, I encountered two moods: The understandable and overwhelming glee over Obama’s ascension to the Presidency and the outright anger and even hate towards outgoing President Bush.
Like an overwhelming majority of Americans, I disagree strongly with many of Bush’s actions as President. Among his many questionable actions, he undermined the Constitution, destroyed America’s reputation on the world stage and probably broke the law by authorizing torture of prisoners.
But as the party goers cheered and offered toasts to a video replay of Bush’s helicopter ferrying him from the Capitol to Andrews Air Force base I heard one man say "damn, it didn’t crash."
Let’s hope it was the wine talking and not a true indicator of how that person felt. It’s one thing to disagree with an elected official’s policies. It’s another to wish him harm.
I thought back eight years ago, to a similar party in a hotel room in Washington where those from the other side of the political spectrum cheered and offered toasts as the chopper carrying Bill Clinton headed for Andrews. I heard a die-hard Republican also wish the chopper had crashed.
Is this the kind of society we have become? One where political disagreements must be tinged with hopes that the object of scorn is killed?
A lot has been written in recent years about the "politics of personal destruction." Some, with short memories or partisan agendas, lay the blame for such politics and the tactics of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. Others, with more institutional knowledge, understand that the same kind of slash and burn politics were played by Bill Clinton and James Carville. Richard Nixon has an enemies list and used the power of the White House to go after them. So did Lyndon Johnson.
Politics has long been a dirty business but the increase of venom, venality and hatred has increased ten-fold over the last 16 years, driving by the extreme partisanship of Republicans when Clinton was President and the equal extremism of Democrats during the two terms of Bush.
Americans had many good reasons to celebrate a truly historical event last Tuesday.
But there is never a good reason to hate.
(Updated at 11:47 a.m. to add additional thoughts)
Welcoming newcomers to our midst
Floyd Countians, by and large, are a friendly bunch when it comes to welcoming newcomers who move to our area. We offer help in providing information, recommendations on builders, plumbers, electricians and services.
Amy and I have put newcomers up in our guest bedroom if they needed a place to stay, lent our cars to those who needed transportation and served as a mail drop or phone information center. Others we know do even more.
So it hurts when I see a newcomer feel like they are unwelcome.
During a discussion earlier this week on power outages from the weather, a South Carolina resident who is moving to Floyd County on January 28 offered an observation on what he had heard about a rolling blackout in the Annapolis, MD, area. That brought a response from a county resident who challenged the report, saying he could not find any news reports on the rolling blackouts. It also brought a prolonged, often contentious debate, over rolling blackouts and the honesty of utility companies.
To which our soon-to-be new resident of Floyd County responded:
I see how it is now. If this is how y’all are, I’ll stay away from here and damn sure keep my distance from downtown Floyd.
A’Dios!
Was our newcomer overly-sensitive? Or did he see a community dominated by petty bickering over nothing?
The answer probably lies somewhere in between. Debates sometimes get out of hand here. It’s the nature of smart, passionate people who have strong opinions and defend them with passion.
But if those debates make potential new residents rethink their decision to join our community then are the discussions productive or counter-productive? I don’t have the answer but the issue deserves thought and consideration.
Wearing a flag lapel pin does not make one a patriot
Floyd County Supervisor Fred Gerald, who represents the Indian Valley District, took WSLS Channel 10 news to task recently because its news anchors aren’t wearing flag lapel pins.
In a note to WSLS, Gerald wrote:
Why do your news people no longer wear the American flag on their lapel? I think it is very unpatriotic! It is a disgrace that they can’t wear the flag on their lapel to show their support for our troops fighting and dying under that flag in Iran and Afghanistan. Is it the policy of WSLS to ban the wearing of the American flag? If so shame on WSLS!
Channel 10 News Anchor Jay Warren responded:
There is no WSLS policy on flag lapel pins. Certainly, if someone wanted to wear one they could and some have in the past. I personally don’t think wearing a pin makes someone patriotic or not. Patriotism shows itself in many different forms from serving in the military to voting to saying the Pledge of Allegiance to yes wearing a flag lapel pin. I would argue that by doing my job as a journalist, the only profession protected in the Constitution, I’m being patriotic.
Amen Jay and shame on you Fred for trivializing patriotism by equating it with a flag lapel pin that was probably made in China.
Sticking a lapel pin in a jacket or slapping a flag decal on the rear window of a pickup truck does not make one a patriot. Neither does blindly following our leaders when they take this nation down a dangerous path, as a vast majority of Americans believe the just-departed Presidential administration did in Iraq.
Patriotism is supporting our nation when it is right and questioning it when it is wrong. As Americans we should, and must, support our troops who are too often placed in harm’s way by agendas that place politics above what’s best for our nation. But we should also support our troops by electing leaders who will get them out of harm’s way as quickly as possible when we learn they may be fighting a battle based on lies and manufactured justifications.
Politicians have, for too long,used patriotism as a tool of divisiveness, not unity. They question the patriotism of those who disagree with their narrow views of the world and use the word "unpatriotic" as intimidation against opponents, conveniently forgetting that this country was founded by patriots who stood up against the tyranny of an oppressive government.
The 4,000 plus American men and women who have died so far in Iraq and Afghanistan gave their lives as patriots serving their county. So did the 58,000 plus who died in Vietnam. And so did the four students who died protesting the Vietnam war at Kent State when they were gunned down by trigger-happy National Guardsmen on May 4, 1970.
On this day, we are all part of history
On this historical day, it doesn’t matter if you are among the millions packing into the National Mall of Washington or one of millions more of Americans sitting in front of a television set or going about your daily routine on what may be another workday.
On this day, and the days that follow, all of us are part of history.
When Barack Hussein Obama takes the oath of office as the 44th President of the United States, I will probably be sitting on hard bench covering the circuit court session for The Floyd Press.
I will catch the events of the day later on what will be many reruns of the swearing in and his long-anticipated inaugural address. Today’s inauguration will be the first that I’ve missed in the last quarter-century. During my 23 years in Washington, I took part in every inauguration from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush as a journalist, a political operative or as an influence-peddling head of a political action committee.
But today, 300 miles away from the madness and hoopla, I feel more a part of history than I ever did as a participant in the inauguration of four previous Presidents.
I voted for Barack Obama because I believe that he offered the best hope for bringing America back from the divisive abyss of the past two decades of partisan political pandering that has all but destroyed the country that I love. Like so many others, I share the hope that this man can deliver on his promises of hope and change. He has to. We’re running out of time.
Obama’s inaugural address, I suspect, will be a message of hope tinged with the reality of harder struggles ahead. The many problems that America faces are decades in the making. Bitter partisan politics practiced by a divisive Congress and Presidents from both parties drove a deep chasm into the heart of this nation and bridging that divide will not be easy. Obama will likely warn us that things will get worse before they can get better.
Obama faces a system that thrives on status quo and business as usual. He will be challenged by partisanship, tasked by bitter philosophical differences and hamstrung by those who cannot put their petty squabbles aside and work towards the unity and bipartisanship we need so desperately.
Can he overcome these obstacles? I believe he can. He won’t be able to do it alone. He will need the help of Democrats, Republicans, independents, conservatives, liberals and moderates. The left and the right must learn to work together towards a common good.
The African-American man who puts his hand on the Bible today and swears to uphold the Constitution will make history.
Then it will be up to all of us to help him implement that history.